


Predator Instinct

by Peppermint_Shamrock



Series: Hallowshots [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Gen, Miraculous Side Effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-26 20:03:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20935961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Peppermint_Shamrock/pseuds/Peppermint_Shamrock
Summary: Over time, a Miraculous can develop powerful effects on its wielder, even outside of the suit.Marinette had thought she was comfortable with that.





	Predator Instinct

**Author's Note:**

> The Miraculouses giving side effects outside of the suit is a neat concept that I've always wanted to explore, but the popular version of it just doesn't work for me. I particularly get hung up on the cold sensitivity/hibernation effect - aside from it being completely contradicted in canon, because if anything, _Adrien_ has shown more vulnerability to cold (Lady Wifi, Prime Queen) than Marinette, although even his sensitivity isn't consistent (Christmas Special, Startrain - _especially_ Startrain) - it also just doesn't make _sense_ to me that the Miraculous would have such a drawback that would render the wielder exhausted and ineffective in a good portion of the year/certain environments. That's just way too much of a liability and would make the Ladybug Miraculous a poor tool for any sort of protector/hero/guardian!
> 
> /rant
> 
> So, uh, here's a short fic trying to make side effects more believable to me, where even if it's a negative effect (or at the very least, an unsettling one), it's still one that makes sense for an artifact designed to fight evil.

The table shook as two separate arms, hands twisted together into a single fist, slammed down on it with sudden force. Cheers erupted as the hands separated, one being gripped and rubbed at by its match, the other returning to its own match as its owner swung both up to meet behind her head in an assured posture of smug victory.

Marinette grinned as she leaned back against the café chair, her relaxed confidence a challenge to the small gathering of friends sitting around the table. She caught the eye of the passing café owner, who shook his head at their antics even as a smile crept up on his face.

_Just don’t break my tables_, Marinette could imagine him saying. She and the girls were regulars, after all, and the owner had always been very welcoming to them.

Across the table from her, Alya mock-glared as she continued to massage her defeated hand.

“Alright, you win,” she grumbled. “And I thought I had a chance after growing up with Nora! We’re seriously gonna have to get you to arm wrestle her some time.”

Marinette gave a falsely innocent shrug. “Well, it’s too bad she’s not here, isn’t it? So who’s next?”

Alix pushed her way into Alya’s seat, causing the displaced girl to shuffle over to stand behind Myléne. “Get ready to lose this time,” she said, her voice a lazy drawl even as her eyes were bright with competition.

“I don’t know about that,” Alya said. “I think Marinette could flatten all of us.”

Marinette only grinned wider.

Oh, she was showing off, sure. And _maybe_ it wasn’t entirely a fair contest, considering that Marinette had the advantage of being a superhero. And while she wasn’t transformed at the moment, her Miraculous did have a side effect of giving her a subtle boost in every day ability – not enough to be obviously superhuman, but enough to help her escape from danger to a place where she could transform to help.

“Over time, the Miraculous will enhance you without a full transformation,” Tikki had explained once. “It cannot give you anything you don’t have to begin with, but it will amplify your abilities and inclinations that align with itself.”

“So, the longer I wear it, the stronger and more flexible I’ll get?” Marinette had asked.

“Mm-hm,” Tikki had nodded, “It will have mental effects, too – though how exactly those manifest have been different for each Ladybug. You may find it easier to focus, or perhaps more difficult because you’ll feel drawn even more strongly to your creative pursuits.”

“Well, if it cures artist block, sign me up,” Marinette had said, smiling widely.

“I don’t know if anything can cure that entirely!” Tikki had laughed.

Whether the Miraculous had actually enhanced her creativity, Marinette didn’t know. She had noticed other effects, though. She’d definitely gotten _quicker_ with her ideas, even if their quality remained the same. And she’d always been driven to be helpful, but now it had grown to be a relentless pull that was almost overwhelming at times.

The increased strength and flexibility she had _definitely _noticed. And if she indulged herself with that a bit, well, even superheroes could have a bit of fun when they weren’t on duty, couldn’t they?

She met Alix halfway, their arms set in position as their hands clasped together. Their spectators waited with baited breath as the two girls sized each other up. At the signal, they began – pressing against the other with a burst of force. Slowly, because even with Marinette’s enhanced strength, Alix was still quite strong on her own, and ten times as competitive – slowly, Marinette pushed Alix’s hand down until the other girl’s resistance slipped and at once their hands came crashing down just as Marinette and Alya’s had only a short time ago.

Once again, the crowd whooped and cheered.

Despite her loss, Alix remained good-natured. “I’m going to bet Kim he can’t win an arm wrestle against you and he’s going to owe me _so_ much when he loses.”

“Oh, that would be fun!” Rose said, clapping her hands together. “We should get all the boys involved, too.”

“All of them?” Alya asked, raising an eyebrow, insinuation clear in her tone.

Alix, on the other hand, had no use for subtly. “Well, at least we know Marinette will lose at least once when she gets distracted by Adrien’s face.”

Marinette crossed her arms and pouted, even as she took it all in stride – she was well used to the teasing, of course. “I could beat him, too.”

“Sure,” Alix said, “as long as you don’t try to talk to him at all, I suppose.”

Everyone, including Marinette, laughed.

Everyone, that was, except for Juleka, whose gaze had landed past them.

“Um…guys? Guys?” she mumbled out, her voice rising unusually in volume. Even though she was still quiet by most standards, the urgency came across, and Marinette followed her friend’s gaze just in time to see someone slip out of the café – Rose’s bag tucked under his arm.

Marinette moved without thinking, leaping to her feet and heedlessly pushing past chairs and patrons as she pursued the thief. She had a single-minded purpose, to pursue, to catch…everything else was an obstacle, and her mind whirred away at finding the optimal, ever-changing path in every moment, the rest of her entirely focused on the pursuit.

She dodged and leapt around every obstacle, and knew the exact moment when her target noticed her. His pace picked up frantically, and a thrill of excitement flooded her, giving her her own burst of speed as she gained on him.

He began weaving and dodging, changing direction abruptly in an attempt to lose or confuse her. But none of his desperate attempts to escape could outsmart Marinette.

She was getting close now – adrenaline had fueled him, but it could only last so long. Soon, he would tire. She would not tire. She was strong and fast and focused and she was so, so close…and was that his feet, his heart pounding or hers?

She swept up beside him, twisting into his path and trapping him. He cried out as she brought him down, but they had already run far past where any help would come to him. Eagerly, she grasped her prey, holding him down so he could no longer escape her, matching his struggles easily as he squirmed and twisted against the pavement.

He twisted around, his face becoming visible, his eyes wide, frantic, desperate, _terrified_…

At once, Marinette snapped back to herself, frozen in place as her own eyes widened. The thief took advantage of her momentary distraction, scrambling backwards out of her grip, and throwing Rose’s bag at her as he barely made it to his feet before taking off.

Marinette physically reared back, startled, frightened by the sudden impulse to continue pursuit. It was too comfortable, too _instinctual_…

Hollowly, she clutched Rose’s purse, barely even registering what it was, only that it was something to hold onto at the moment.

She had…she had…

That look of absolute _fear_…she had never seen anyone so terrified of anything before, and to think that _she_ was the thing that could inspire that absolute, primal terror…she was never going to be able to forget that face, twisted up in that awful expression that no person should ever have to wear. That face was going to haunt her nightmares.

And, she thought as she tried to suppress her shaking limbs, her face would probably be haunting _his_, too.

Her friends found her there not too much later, standing unnaturally still because she would be overcome by trembling otherwise.

“You got it back!” Rose said happily. “Thank you, Marinette!”

“I…” Marinette said, distantly surprised she could even speak at this point. Her voice sounded faint and far away. “He just…threw it back and ran off…”

“Even so, thank you!” Rose said, taking the bag back from Marinette, who let it slip from her still, numb fingers.

“What’s wrong?”

“Are you okay?”

“Did something happen?”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No,” Marinette said, still unmoving. “I’m…I’m not…I’m not hurt. I just…I think I need to go home now. I’ll…be fine, I promise.”

She didn’t know if that was true.

.

.

“What _was_ that?” Marinette demanded of Tikki, once she had recovered enough and gotten back to the privacy of her room. “The way I just…just lost it, there!”

Tikki floated up to Marinette’s eye level, completely unconcerned. If anything, the kwami seemed confused by Marinette’s panic.

“The Miraculous enhances you,” she said, in the tone of one who had already explained something already. And it was true, she had explained that before, but that didn’t explain…_this_. “You’ve always had the drive to help, to protect, to correct injustice – the Miraculous amplified that and gave you the strength and speed to act on it!” she finished cheerfully. “It’s a perfectly normal development.”

“But it wasn’t just that!” Marinette said, the pitch of her voice jumping wildly. “When he ran, I…I felt…when I chased him, it wasn’t just about bringing him to justice, it…I was _hunting_ him, Tikki. I wasn’t…I don’t think I was going to _eat_ him, but I was going to do _something_…I…he was so _scared_, I can’t imagine what I looked like when I was…hunting him, when I _wanted_ to hunt him…”

She looked desperately at Tikki for some sort of reassurance, a promise that this would never happen again, a soothing coo that it was all a misunderstanding, that no, she hadn’t actually been _hunting_ the guy…

But Tikki remained floating there, still uncomprehending, and Marinette was uncomfortably reminded of Tikki’s ancient, godlike nature. Most of the time, Tikki seemed to be on the same moral wavelength as humanity, but how much of that was innate and how much was something she had learned to emulate during her time among humans? How much of a disconnect was there still between the concerns of mortals and the concerns of kwamis?

“I just…” Marinette said, her voice barely above a whisper. “Is this because of my Miraculous?”

“It helps bring it out,” Tikki said, in a tone she probably thought was reassuring, but only made Marinette’s blood feel colder. “But it doesn’t change your nature.”

“Ladybugs and humans are _both _predators, after all.”

**Author's Note:**

> Check out my [Dreamwidth](https://peppermint-shamrock.dreamwidth.org/) for daily WIP excerpts and sneak peaks, or follow my [Miraculous Tumblr blog](https://ladyofcreation.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
